Malbim's fame and immense
popularity rest upon his monumental commentary on the Tanach (the Hebrew
Bible). He composed and published it between
1845 and 1870.

It
was the first work of its kind since medieval times. Not since the
likes of Rashi, Gersonides and Abrabanel had a biblical commentary of comparable
size and scope been written; and not since the golden age of Jewish philosophy
had such a far ranging Jewish theology been formulated.

Nor, since
that enlightened Spanish era, had such a determined and focused attempt
been made to grapple with the challenges presented by secular learning
and mores
to the loyalties of contemporary Jews.

His
first published commentary was on Megillas Esther (1845). His commentaries
on the remaining books
of the Bible were published between 1845 and 1876.

Written in
a lucid style, his often original comments pay close attention to nuances
and
derivations
of words.

His commentary
of the Early Prophets is considered a modern classic.

His commentary on Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy
is always
printed with the Halachic Midrash on those books, to which Malbim makes
frequent reference.

"Ha-Torah v'ha-Mikvah," commentary
on the Pentateuch and Sifra (Warsaw, 1874-80);

"Mikra'e Kodesh," commentary
on the Prophets and Hagiographa (ib. 1874; this commentary is double—on
the words and on the sense; Malbim always endeavored to explain the
different meanings of synonyms):

'Malbim' is an
acronym of the full name of Rabbi
Meir Leibush ben Yechiel Michel.

Malbim was
born at Volochisk, in Volhynia Russia,
in 1809.
He
was
still
a child when his father died. He
was educated in Hebrew and Talmud first by his father, and then by his
stepfather, R. Löb of Volochisk. He studied in his native town
until he was thirteen. He showed unusual talent from his early childhood. His
works indicate that he also had a considerable knowledge of secular sciences.

When he was thirteen,
Malbim went to Warsaw, where he was known as the ‘Prodigy
from Volhynia.’ He
wandered much of his life, serving as Rav in various cities for several
years at a time. Wherever he went, he
was persecuted because of his uncompromising stand
against Reform, even suffering a brief imprisonment on a false accusation.

From 1838 to 1845
he was rabbi of Wreschen, in the district of Posen. In 1845, he was called to the rabbinate of Kempen,
where he remained until 1860. He was thereafter known as "Der
Kempener." In
1860, Malbim became chief rabbi of Bucharest, Rumania. For a short while
he was Chief Rabbi
of
Rumania.

In
Rumania, he could not agree with the
rich German Jews there. They wished to introduce the Reform
rite, and did not shrink even from violence in the pursuit of their aims. By
intrigues they succeeded in throwing him into prison. Though he
was liberated through the intervention of Sir Moses Montefiore, it was
upon
the condition that he leave Rumania.

Malbim went to
Constantinople and complained to the Turkish government, but obtained no
satisfaction. After staying six months in Paris, he went
to Lencziza, in the district of Kalisz, Russian Poland, as successor to his
deceased father-in-law,
Chayyim Auerbach (1866). Shortly after, he was rabbi at Kherson; and
from there was called to the rabbinate of Moghilef, on the Dnieper (1870).

There,
too,
his lack of subservience provoked the resentment of the richer Jews. These
denounced him as a political criminal, and the governor of Moghilef ordered
him to leave the town. Malbim then went to Königsberg as chief
rabbi of the Polish community, but there he fared no better than in Bucharest
and
Moghilef. He was continually harassed by the German Reform Jews.

When
Malbim passed through Vilna in 1879, the community there would have appointed
him
rabbi in
place of Isaac Elijah Landau, but the governor of Vilna opposed the election
on the grounds that he could not sanction the appointment of a rabbi who
had been expelled from Moghilef as a political criminal.

In September of
the same year, Malbim was on his way to Krementchug, where
he had been appointed rabbi, when he fell sick and died at Kiev, September
18, 1879.

On the narrative level, Malbim's interpretation of Job is quite straightforward;
it is all a matter of tests and trials. The person Job is being tested;
first by prosperity and then by adversity. It is, however, on other
levels that
Malbim's Job really comes into its own. Malbim believed the Massoretic
(Hebrew) text to the Book of Job to be a coherent whole that faithfully records
what
the book's original author, Moses, actuallly wrote. As such, its
standing in matters of moral and natural philosophy must be on a par with
that the
Torah has in matters of Halachah. Just as the whole of Halachah is
inherent in the text of the Torah, so must all the wisdom of philosophy
and metaphysics
be present in the Book of Job, there in its poetry and imagery. Moreover,
Malbim asserted, whereas previous commentators had failed to show how the
text of Job supported the philosophical affinities they had attributed
to Job and his friends, or how these designations helped to elucidate the
text,
he claims to do both. Exhibiting an originality of interpretation
and a love of the Hebrew language that matched the Haskalah of his contemporaries,
Malbim
finds support for all his ideas in the actual words of the Book of Job
itself. Whether or not his interpretation is truly the sense of Job,
what Malbim produced
is undoubtedly a masterpiece of theology and exegesis.